Customer Reviews

A.D.

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Science fiction isn't usually my first choice when I want to escape between the covers of a good book. With the exception of Octavia Butler and a few other talented writers, people of African decent don't seem to play much of a role in the future as defined by writers of fantasy/speculative fiction. For that reason, I was intrigued when I read the description for A.D. on Amazon and ordered the book.

Although the premise is interesting (an African American man is cryogenically frozen and awakes 400 years later in a racially segregated New World Order) the author, Saab Lofton, lacks the imagination and talent as a writer to make the novel work.

The reader is immediately challeged to suspend their disbelief to the point that he/she will believe that bankrupt Aryan leader Tom Metzger and NOI despot Louis Farrakhan are smart/influencial enough to split up the country according to their racist doctrines.

Sounds far fetched? It is. By tying the events in his novel to these pathetic figures, Lofton not only makes his futurist novel seem "dated" but wholly implausible. He simply lacks the talent to create a future existence that can borrow from the present and exapand it without creating a heavy-handed and choppy diatribe.

The novel's protagonist, Elijah, rarely rises above Lofton's thumbnail sketch of him. Other characters suffer the same fate. In a story as fantastic as this one it is imperative that the characters be fleshed out enough to make the story believable. Lofton simply never accomplishes this.

Lofton (a far left socialist) can't decide if A.D. is really a novel or a flimsy article for the pages of the Socialist Worker. Never content to let the characters and their actions speak for themselves, Lofton continually stiffles the story by interjecting (read:forcefeeding) the reader his own political agenda.

His writing style is overly didactic, never allowing the reader to become absorbed in the "story" itself. In addition to this flaw, the editing of the novel is so bad it's a distraction. Fragmented sentences and other grammatical errors make A.D. a test of the reader's patience.

Aside from these problems the novel itself isn't very original. Lofton heavily borrows storylines from Ayn Rand and George Orwell without taking note of their ear for dialogue and passion for storytelling. Where Orwell builds suspense in 1984, Lofton is predictable.

In the end, A.D. is a forgettable story. I've read reviews in leftist papers that praised the novel for challenging reader perspectives when in all honesty people are more challenged by well-written, thought provocing pieces. This is not that piece and fans of A.D. are probably already in the choir that Lofton is preaching to.

If you must read this book, I implore you to skip the self-congratulatory introduction . In it Lofton goes on his own diatribe against "Trekkies" and whines endlessly about being homeless (though he never slept in a shelter); not being able to handle school at a local community college and full time work (note to Saab: people do it all the time); and waiting for his "inheritance" to kick it. To make things even worse, he refers to himself as "The Mighty Saab Lofton, King of the Impossible"--I wish I were kidding. The prologue isn't much better (a mini-PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE US without the footnotes) and is out of place in a book that is supposedley a sci-fi novel.

Saab Lofton tends to make certain people uncomfortable, especially capitalists, nationalists, and supremacists, be they white OR black. If you are in The People Of My Pigmentation Are Kings, Queens, and Gods Coalition, then your bubble is about to be burst.

A.D. begins with an introduction, one in which Lofton draws his politics and his struggles on his chest with a deep red marker, lest there be any question about which side of the road he stands on or which side of the tracks he comes from. It's self-promotingly bombastic in the manner of Marvel Comics' Stan Lee and displays an enthusiasm and engagement with the world that I wish more writers had. He's proud of his work, and his love of writing the fantastic is only eclipsed by his desire to see a more sustainable and ethical social reality for all in his lifetime. Lofton can call himself "King of the Impossible" all he wants as far as I am concerned because what he writes is something we sorely need more of in our culture: fiction that is entertaining, pulse-pounding, AND committed.

After Lofton makes like Rod Serling, he then thrusts us into an alternate America where Jack Kemp and Ross Perot win the White House for the Republican Party in 1996 only to be defeated in 2000 by the team of Jerry Brown and Jesse Jackson, who do not run as Democrats but instead under the truly leftist and progressive banner of the Independent party. Democrats and Republicans join forces in 2004 to take down Brown and Jackson but are defeated as well.

This first part of the novel is enough to make Democrats adjust their collars as Lofton uses his canny knowledge of American politics to expose the two major parties as being pretty much identical, but here's where things really start to boil rapidly.

On New Year's Day 2006, a Satanic alliance is formed between Louis Farrakan's Nation of Islam AND Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance. Using hijacked nuclear warheads to hold the world hostage and destroy Australia, both groups take over the vast majority of America and divide it up into two major racialized kingdoms. WAR gets what is called Aryan Amerikkka, and the NOI is given the Lost-Found Nation Of Islam In North America. What will really be disturbing about this to some is how the author uses legitimate historical facts to demonstrate just how both white and black supremacists have been in cahoots with each other for many moons and how some of the heroes of Black History have been severely tainted by their associations with not only the KKK and other such groups, but also fascism and extremist capitalism, which could be argued as being one and the same.

In other words, Farrakhan and Malcolm X were each as radical as Reagan and Nixon, and that's only part of it.

Lofton focuses the first half of his tale on The Lost-Found Nation, which has essentially become a totalitarian and highly punitive state ruled by a perverted Islam where there are no social or public services, where polluted air makes everyone perpetually sick, and where people must adhere to strict, repressive moral laws.

Elijah Isiah, the novel's main character, is starting to question everything, and that questioning starts to get him in trouble. When he angrily breaks the law in an attempt to stand up for his young son, he is saved and whisked away by agents of an underground resistance made up of black and white radicals (all is not well for most in Aryan Amerikkka either). There he finds out that his real name is Fred Hampton Rush and that he is descended from members of the original Black Panthers, a group that Lofton reminds us was totally at odds with the NOI. Fred Rush is then frozen a la Captain America and wakes up over 400 years later to find himself in an LSD (Libertarian Socialist Democracy). But just as he's starting to adjust to his new life and become acquainted with his futuristic kin, he finds that something sinister is afoot...

You could argue that the second half of the story drags somewhat, but that would belie Lofton's true strength: his vision of a Green future, one where everyone's needs are met, one where there are personal freedoms, one where there is equality, one that is contradictory to what Lofton calls "bootstrap capitalism" where "personal responsibility" is touted as a healthy societal backbone and "hand-outs" are forbidden, ultimately resulting in a plutocracy. Lofton HAS to take the time to explain this future, how it came about, how it can be realized, and how and why it can be threatened.

Despite Lofton's fiery opinion pieces which are easily found online, what Lofton really wants to do is bring people together to fight a common cause against common ills. A.D. shows just how race can be invoked in order to prevent solidarity between working and poor people of all backgrounds as the novel itself acts as a perfect anti-racist and mightily class-conscious antidote to corporate propaganda.

This book is dangerous to the ruling class and essential reading for anyone who thinks their salvation lies in tribalism and the free market. It also at times is great fun despite its weighty message, Lofton not only giving us a proud panorama of his politics, but also of his interests in comic books, sci-fi, pro wrestling, and pop culture in his trademark self-referential Gen-X'er style.

A.D. made Howard Zinn, who praises it on the back cover, very proud. It would have made Gene Roddenberry and Martin Luther King proud too.

Thank you Saab Lofton for giving us a great left-wing pulp fiction for the ages. Damn all the publishers who choose to keep themselves in the dark about A.D. Damn all those publishers for keeping America in the dark about A.D. by keeping it safely out of print so that the elites, race-mongers, and others who are favored by the status quo can sleep soundly each night. After all, the truth can be Kryptonite, and a good example can be one righteous wildfire. Ya'll better hope this doesn't become a feature film.

This book is an example of a Sci-fi book that has a lot of social knowledge woven in. It makes you think about the way things are, and the way they could be. As an International Relation/Political Science major I found this book makes you want to think about our society.

I think this book is extremely creative and a treasure to find. It is a rare treat to read such social commentary woven into a sci-fi story line.

Loftons' knee-jerk reactionary tale of black versus white, in a conspiracy laden immediate future, rides the crest of the Waco, Ruby Ridge, Oklahoma City bombing tide with Pat Robertson /Louis Farrakhan-esque jingo-ism for any shade you view yourself as. Written on a level barely suitable for a high-school senior, it's a good book to read on a flight when you have to choose between being bored to death, or just being bored to the point of drooling.

The book has an impressive introduction with a very interesting analasys of the extreme right; both black and white. However, the author makes it clear from the beginning that he is an extreme socialist, therefore his ideas have to be taken with a grain of salt.

The first part of the book, with the description of a utopian society ruled by the Nation of Islam, strongly resembles an Orwellian type of society. It is well written and presents interesting ideas.

The second part of the book however leaves something to be desired. It seems that the author has departed from his original attention to detail and social-political analasys and has transformed the book into a banal story, unworthy of being attached to the first part of the book.

Overall, this is a book worthy of being read, with interesting ideas, and a good writing style.

The book is a page-turner and a powerful political pamphlet. The thing I deplored about it is the run-of-the-mill 400-year hybernation scenario and the ensuing 400-year gap in human history where nothing seems to have happened since the late 20th century. Saab should rewrite the second part of the damn novel to make it a masterpiece.

Impressive both with the detail in the beginning and the quality and fun of the story, I read AD in a single sitting. It's the type of sci-fi that scares you because of just how possible it is. It 's the kind of story telling that has you wishing for the hero to win in the end. I recogmend it to everyone.